When you have more money than you need to live comfortably, the world is full of possibilities. Generally those possibilities fall within two broad categories: a) buy a bigger home, or more homes, a bigger car, more expensive holidays, more bicycles, etc, or b) help those not as lucky as you, make the world better, or somehow give back, etc.

For us the choice and challenge is clear. We want to leave future generations with a fairer, healthier, better educated and safer world.

While we have worked in various professional roles, including launching our own small businesses, our wealth has primarily come from investing in other people's businesses. We have done okay, or been very lucky.

The majority of businesses we have launched, and many of our investments have failed. By learning from our mistakes, we have learnt to do better. In fact we do better when we screen for failure versus seeking confirmation of a belief in success.

Importantly we have learned to change our position when we realize we were wrong. Certainty about anything in the future is elusive so our decisions are based on the probability of an idea or business being successful. It's not overly complicated, however, it requires that we rely on facts and not our beliefs.

We use this same approach with our foundation. We look at the facts regarding what works and what doesn't work. We look around the world and see what sort of governments and institutions are delivering or not delivering better education, better health, safer environments and opportunities to get ahead.

This process requires that we are willing and curious enough to update our own beliefs.

Personally, we have given up the belief that we can change people's minds with facts alone. Maybe that realization will help us most of all at Between the Waves. 

I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned. — Richard Feynman

In 2023, Between the Waves — A Nice Mar Fund - was brought to life by Nick, Celeste, and Marcela, (NICE MAR), driven by the idea that positive change in the world starts with facing facts, admitting mistakes, and being willing to change our minds. 

Marcela grew up in Colombia, an industrial engineer qualified from the University of Antioquia, and worked across manufacturing and supply chain in Colombia and later internationally. She has recently completed a Master's in International Co-operation, and volunteers for the Red Cross.

Nick grew up in Australia, worked across the advertising and publishing industries, and founded several businesses, including being the largest magazine publisher in Nicaragua.

Celeste is just starting high school but has already experienced life in Australia, Colombia, Portugal, and Spain.

Our family has appreciated the substantial benefits of living in countries like Australia and Spain, while also being accustomed to the significant difficulties of countries like Nicaragua and Colombia. 

We have discovered the difference between countries is rarely down to luck or resources, it depends on political and institutional integrity

Mission

We support work that counters apathy towards democracy, division and polarization, and the lure of populism.

Historically these factors have often delivered worse outcomes for the majority and, at times, caused devastation.

The impact: rising cost of living, a more divided society, shrinking opportunities, worse health outcomes, reduced freedoms, and a poorer world than the one we had.

Vision

A more rational world through civil conversations

Street Epistemology International is a non-profit organization dedicated to the worldwide propagation of Street Epistemology, a method for helping people critically reflect on the quality of their reasoning through civil conversation. The organization developed the Navigating Beliefs course, a free, accessible, self-paced resource designed to teach people how to have more productive discussions

The Australia Institute

We believe in democracy and our work is aimed at a better, more informed democratic debate. We design work and research to influence and persuade policymakers, politicians and to shift the public debate. We are fiercely non-partisan but we don't shy away from engaging in politics and political debates.

We're taking a stand against toxic politics.

Will you join us?

Braver Angels is leading the nation's largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic.

We welcome opportunities to engage those with whom we disagree. We believe all of us have blind spots and none of us are not worth talking to. 

We seek to disagree accurately, avoiding exaggeration and stereotypes. 

We look for common ground where it exists and, if possible, find ways to work together. 

We believe that, in disagreements, both sides share and learn. In Braver Angels, neither side is teaching the other or giving feedback on how to think or say things differently.

Strengthening digital skills for progressives across Europe

We help progressive organizations, political parties, and movements build people-powered campaigns. Our mission is to equip campaigners with the tools, strategies and skills they need — from digital organizing and small-donor fundraising to cutting-edge tech and campaign tactics – we support them to grow communities, engage supporters and mobilize for social and political change.

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An Engine for a Democratic and Hopeful Europe

Alliance4Europe is a non-profit organisation dedicated to protecting and advancing democracy in Europe.

We bring communities, networks, and movements together to cooperate, develop impactful solutions, and launch campaigns that drive change — working in tandem like cylinders powering a shared engine for European democracy, countering autocracy and hybrid threats.

Our mission is to ensure that Australians are equipped, empowered and enabled to uphold their digital rights. We believe that digital rights are human rights which see their expression online.

Our vision is for a digital world where all humanity can thrive, and where diversity and creativity flourishes.

To ensure this, our digital world must be underpinned by equality, freedom and established human rights principles. Its evolution and future must be guided and driven by the interests of all people and the environments we live in.

Transparency International

We are part of a global movement against corruption.

Transparency International Australia is the national chapter of Transparency International, a global coalition against corruption operating in over 100 countries. Each chapter is independent and unique, and together we aspire to a unified vision: a world free of corruption.

Human Rights Watch Australia

 Established in 1978, Human Rights Watch is known for its accurate fact-finding, impartial reporting, effective use of media, and targeted advocacy, often in partnership with local human rights groups. Each year, Human Rights Watch publishes more than 100 reports and briefings on human rights conditions in some 90 countries, generating extensive coverage in local and international media. With the leverage this brings, Human Rights Watch meets with governments, the United Nations, regional groups like the African Union and the European Union, financial institutions, and corporations to press for changes in policy and practice that promote human rights and justice around the world.

Right now, inequality is trapping billions of people in poverty. It's causing a record number of people to lose their livelihoods, struggle for essentials and face extreme hunger — all while a handful of people hold inconceivable wealth.

It's unfair, unjust and unacceptable. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Together, we have the power to create an equal world without the inequalities that keep people in poverty.